Jan wrote:> Here's part of a post from Mongoose Publishing> about them:>> ----------------------------------------> <<The first month of releases (I am waiting to hear back for exact confirmation> of date, but assume June/July for now) look like this;>> Ranger Dawning by Richard Ford> Actions of Many by MJ Dougherty> Visions of Peace by Matthew Sprange (ahem)> No Rest for the Wicked by Claudia Christian>> Second month (July/August);>> Ashes of the Past by Bruce Graw> Birth of Heroes by Bryan Steele>> And more are in the works, from a variety of authors. I am looking at tackling a> Crusade trilogy that wil wrap up that timeline but the work, is, frankly,> daunting with my schedule.>

Just to confirm, however: these books have nothing to do with B5continuity or history from a canonical point of view. They areoperating totally outside the loop of what has been authorized beforefrom a creative perspective, and any claim that these "wrap up" anysort of timeline within B5 is rather grandiose at best. That timelinecan't be "wrapped up" by anyone who doesn't know what was coming, andthe only person who knows what was coming is me.

As far as I'm concerned, these books have nothing to do with the show.

Lance Corporal "Hammer" Schultz wrote:> On Tue, 16 May 2006 23:21:48 +0000 (UTC), jmsatb5@aol.com wrote:>> > Laura Appelbaum wrote:> >> So basically, they're WB authorized fan fiction?> >> > At best, yeah, which is why I in all good conscience cannot endorse> > them.>> I think what is "needed" (as much as anyone needs good fictional> books) is a "Babylon 5 Universal Encyclopedia," something like the> Dune Encyclopedia, which isn't a story at all but a "future history.">> I've read that you had the "history" of the B5 universe outlined for a> million years after the events of B5. An encyclopedic "reference" of> the entire universe and major events would be something I would buy in> an instant.>

AC wrote:>> So, are you claiming this Mathew guy is lying in the podcast?

Not having heard the podcast, I really can't say. All that I can sayis that there has been zero coordination or approvals between Mongooseand anyone else that I know of. To date, again as far as I know, WBhasn't been shown what they're doing, certainly I haven't seen it,don't know what it is, nobody has signed off or approved anything thatthey're doing in terms of story, content, characterization, anything.

In the long history of B5, we have never had a situation where alicensee has decided to just go off and do their own thing withoutcoordinating the creative aspects through WB and myself. They're doingthis completely off on their own. No other B5 licensed company hasdecided, in essence, "screw you, we don't need you," which has been myperception of their approach from early on, when they first approachedme to try and (in my view) reluctantly get me involved...an initialapproach that was absurd, and insulting. When they came back, thesituation did not measurably improve and the attitude was one of, andI'm admittedly characterizing it here, sod off, we don't need you, wecan go directly to the fans, who don't need you, we can do it better.And they went on to kind of poison the well with the fans in thatregard.

And that's where it ended. They've gone off and done their thing,without any kind of creative approval as far as I know, which I believeis also a requirement of their contract. Be that as it may...whateverthey're doing, it has no bearing on the B5 universe insofar as I'mconcerned, which is again why I cannot endorse this on a personal orcreative basis.

Mac Breck wrote:> > > So, are you claiming this Mathew guy is lying in the podcast?

I've had a chance now to review a transcript of the podcast.

As is known, the Del Rey books were written from outlines that I wrotefor them.

When asked in the podcast "Are you guys going to be working fromStraczynski's outlines for these Crusade novels?" he replies:

"To begin with, yes, but there is only a very limited amount ofmaterial available for Crusade, so we are going to be taking whatexists and forging on with that."

Let me be clear: I have provided no outlines for novels to Mongoose.Nor are there any outlines of episodes beyond what was shot plus thetwo scripted but not shot episodes. There ARE no outlines to whichthey could have had access. So this is false.

A little later, he is asked, ""How much input directly are you gettingfrom JMS?" To which he replies:

"These days it's getting to be less and less," citing that there's anopen invitation to continue but that I'm "a very busy chap."

You cannot have less input than zero input. I have had zero input intothese novels. So to say there is less now means that there was somebefore. Soi this is also false.

I don't much like having to be in a position to discuss this publicly,because it feels like talking out of school, but if someone is sayingthat I have had input into something when there has been no such thing,and that something is based on outlines supposedly by me which do notexist, and fans are making their decisions based on these statements, Ihave to correct them in the interests of accuracy.